A Cheap, Common Steroid Called Dexamethasone May Help Patients With Severe COVID-19, Study Says

A paper published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests a low-cost steroid may be a valuable treatment for severe COVID-19, building upon encouraging preliminary findings from last month. In June, U.K. researchers reported that dexamethasone—a cheap, widely available steroid that can lower inflammation in the body—appeared to reduce by a third the risk of death among patients with severe COVID-19. U.K. practitioners began using dexamethasone the very same day the results were announced, but some medical experts were more guarded, arguing no conclusions should be made without seeing the trial’s full results. Those results were published today in NEJM, and they seem to support what was announced last month. Dexamethasone did have a measurable benefit for COVID-19 patients sick enough to require respiratory support—but it had no such benefit, and even showed the potential for some possible harm, for patients with milder disease. About 2,100 people hospitalized for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 were randomly assigned to receive a 10-day course of dexamethasone in addition to standard COVID-19 care, while about 4,300 received standard care alone. Around 16% of the patients (overall, both those given dexamethasone and those who were not) were receiving mechanical ventilation, 60% were receiving oxygen only and 24% were not getting any breathing support. After 28 days, 482 patients taking dexamethasone had died, compared to about 1,110 of...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news